CONTE: BLAME ME OVER LOSS

and piled the pressure on the stumbling league leaders.

Conte’s men have now lost two of their last four league games and were so bad that it was the first time in almost a decade they failed to have a single shot on target.

Their miserable afternoon was compounded by Marcos Alonso being taken ill during the warm-up and Thibaut Courtois missing out after reportedly injuring his ankle in a basketball event last week.

Warned

With second-placed Spurs four points behind Chelsea after a run of seven wins, Conte admitted there can be no more slip-ups in the title run-in.

He warned: “This league is not closed. Tottenham are on great form and playing with great enthusiasm, but we are playing a great season and we must try to reach our target.

“We have to think that there are six finals from now until the end. It would be good to finish on top because it means we deserve this. Otherwise we deserve nothing.

“The pressure is normal. I’d prefer to play for the title instead of not fighting for the title. The pressure is normal and we are lucky to have it.

“We must have great enthusiasm to play these last games, be patient and have a great will to fight.”

United are now 22 games unbeaten in the league.

This was the first time they had beaten Chelsea since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, despite introducing Zlatan Ibrahimovic with only seven minutes left and leaving Henrikh Mkhitaryan on the bench.

Mourinho, who singled out Rashford for praise, said: “Maybe we didn’t rest players. Maybe we chose the team that we thought was the best.

“Marcus played fantastically well. He can get behind defenders, but everybody did what they had to do.

“Marcus scored and it gave the team more confidence.”

Herrera added: “I thought we were almost perfect. There are always some things to improve, but it was almost perfect.

“They didn’t have any chances – and they are the top team in the table.”